


Two Sides Of The Same Coin

by Go_To_Space



Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, REALLY slow, Slow Build, Slow Burn, maybe?? - Freeform, smut??, you know the drill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-30
Packaged: 2018-06-09 17:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6916636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Go_To_Space/pseuds/Go_To_Space
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What are the chances two the Commonwealth's biggest smartasses would team up?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The world is just too much of a shit storm to even begin to comprehend what was going on. October 23rd, 2077, the world went into atomic war, and the the majority of it was blown to bits and soaked with radiation. Before that, I was a banker at the Commonwealth Bank of Boston. So naturally, I was pretty charismatic and good with money. When I was 21, I got married to a man named Nate Weiss. He was in the military, and we wanted to get married before he had to leave for Afghanistan. And after he left, I realized I was pregnant. I freaked out. Nate was gonna be gone for 11 months at least and I was pregnant. I couldn't juggle a baby and work. Let alone by myself. But I stuck it out and had a baby boy. And a month later, Nate returned. And then the bombs fell. Nate, my baby, who's name is Shaun, and I, were lucky enough to get into the local vault. Vault 111. Then they froze us in some sort of cryogenic state. And we stayed frozen. For over 200 years. On top of that, my Nate is dead now, killed by some ugly fuck who thought It'd be funny to wake me up, shoot my husband, and call me the "back-up" after ripping my son out of the arms of my now dead husband and walk away with him. And then put me right back to sleep. Then I woke up again some amount of years later and got the hell out of there. I checked every other pod in the entire facility. I was the only one left alive. The only one left alive in this hellhole. I vowed to get revenge on the man that killed Nate. And I vowed to get Shaun back. And when I got out, the world was dead. Everything was dead. I assumed, at least every person was dead. But I was in luck, sorta. Codsworth was still in Sanctuary Hills, still trying to clean the nuclear fallout off the floors. Codsworth is Mr. Handy robot butler, who I was actually pretty fond of. He wasn't allowed to come to the vault with us, so I assumed the worst after the bombs fell. He helped me out, searched the neighborhood with me, cracked jokes, and ultimately led me to Concord, where I met Preston Garvey, the last of the Commonwealth minutemen. The last I'd heard of the minutemen was in history books. I thought Preston was absolutely loony but I didn't care. I was just relieved I wasn't the last human left in the world. On the way to Concord I also met a dog at the local gas station, who I wanted to call Jack but everyone else calls Dogmeat. Dogmeat and I helped Preston fight off raiders and a Deathclaw that randomly decided to pop out of a hole in Concord and then took Preston and his group to Sanctuary. His group consisted of Jun and Marcy Long, who were both big cry babies for reasons i still don't know, Sturges, who was kind of like that annoying vegetarian who constantly liked to point out that they're a vegetarian even though no one asks. Ever. That was him with his stupid "my dad taught me to build" story. Then there was Mama Murphy, who was basically a psychic who was only a psychic when she high as a kite off Jet. They were the biggest crack head group I'd met, but I relieved to have anyone at all. I took them all to Sanctuary, where Preston started giving me odd jobs here and there for the minutemen, going to little isolated settlements across the Commonwealth trying to help them with their raider troubles and ghoul troubles and super mutant troubles. I felt like the biggest badass in America taking out all these bad guys with just my shotgun and my dog. It kept me busy and it kept my mind off the horrible things I saw when I woke up. I kept up these little missions for about two weeks and one day when I came back from a settlement mission, Mama Murphy told me that I'd find what I was looking for in Diamond City. Where I'd find my son. Despite me thinking she was a delusional lunatic, she said exactly what I wanted to hear. So I scooped up Dogmeat and left. And now here I am. Drinking myself blind till the asscrack of dawn in Diamond City.


	2. Diamond City and Goodnieghbor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What could possibly go wrong?

Day three, running out of liquor, and getting pissed about it. Everyone in this city must hate me except for Piper. Even Dogmeat probably thinks I've gone a little loony by now. Probably because drinking yourself silly and talking yourself as you wander the streets of Diamond City is at least slightly concerning to them.  
Hell If I knew. On the way to the city I met some settlers, struck conversation to see if they knew anything at all about the city or they saw an ugly bald man carrying a baby. The only intel I really got was that Diamond City is where all the pussies lived to feel safe for five minutes. That everyone there basically cowered behind mayor McDonough and all of the turrets and guards that came out of him. I was never told what everyone was hiding from, besides that "it was what they can't see that scares them." And I had no idea what that meant at the time. Regardless, I carried on to Diamond City and at the gate I met a... Lovely lady... By the name of Piper Wright, who wrote the newspaper for the city. Apparently that same newspaper is what got her thrown out, according to her angry rant into a speaker outside the gate. It was almost entertaining how pissed off she was, so Dogmeat and I simply watched. And then before I knew it the girl, who couldn't have been more then 5'4 at most, was dragging me to the speaker and began to complement my trading supplies. I had nothing to trade. Despite practically rolling in Stimpaks and caps, I didn't have much else on me. I had my trusty shotgun. Not a double barrel, but something else. I had switchblade hidden in my boot and a 10mm hanging on my side.  
And that was literally all I had.  
I could only stand there and push my glasses up and watch her sweet talk the speaker until it gave an exasperated sigh and let us in. And then we were met with the tyrant himself, Mr. McDonough, who gave Piper a strict lecture that made me want to chop him in the throat. When he turned on me, I told him what I was looking for, and his immediate response was practically "no." He was so, so, so lucky that I didn't lose my temper and kick him in his dick. After all that went down, I begged a guard for help, and he told me to go to Valentine's detective agency. Apparently, this Nick guy was the best I was gonna find in the whole damn Commonwealth. I didn't believe it for a second.  
Despite that, I stumbled my tired ass to Nick's place. And all I found was a girl who kept mumbling to herself about "what a dummy" that Nick was. I could only assume this girl was Nick's girl. And that Nick was dead. When she told me they were closed and couldn't take my case, I asked about Nick's whereabouts instead. And sure enough, he'd taken a case some number of weeks ago and was still gone. I made her stop telling her little story when she started to get a little hysterical. And I promised to get Nick back. More for myself then for her, but I did promise. She wrote some things down on a piece of paper, shoved in my hands and then I left. Bur, instead of reading the paper, I went to Piper's place because she wanted am interview with me, for some reason. And while I was there, I properly learned about a cute little organization called the Institute. And by the sound of it, they had him.  
They had my baby.  
I gave Piper a kiss-ass interview and then threw myself to to Dugout Inn to get some shut eye. Then, the next morning, I woke up and read the paper. And nearly shit myself. Go figure this Nick guy would be crammed in a hole full of triggermen that would shoot me to pieces in a second. I was not about to bust in there guns blazing with a fucking dog as fire support. I love Dogmeat to death, but that simply was not going to cut it. And thinking about it for a while, I realized I was fucked. I absolutely was NOT walking all the way to Sanctuary to pick up Preston to listen to him rant about the raiders at Telpines Bluff or Oberland Station or some bullshit for a week. I wasn't going to take Codsworth with me. I just wasn't. I love Codsworth, too, but his overly optimistic attitude about everything just doesn't cross with my overly pessimistic one. I wasn't taking Piper with me, since she had about as much experience in the fallout world as a bottle of fresh milk. It just didn't work. And in my head, I had already exhausted all my options. So I gave up. I'd just hope and pray that Nick would turn up on his own eventually.  
I also realized I had enough caps to buy out the Dugout like six times, so I took that to my advantage and bought all the alcohol I could carry. I guess you could say I'm an alcoholic. But regardless, that brings me to here, sitting on a stool in front of Takahashi and washing down a bottle of whiskey with some noodles.  
"Na-ni shimosho-ka?" His robotic voice says.  
"Tell me a joke." I slur at him.  
"Na-ni shimosho-ka?" He says again. I let out a sigh. I really needed something to do before I lost my mind. Dogmeat let out a quiet bark to get my attention, to which I look and him and pet his head.  
"I know, boy. I need other help, though." I said as if he can understand a single word I say. I prop my elbows on the counter and sigh again.  
"Na-ni shimosho-ka?" The robot asked again.  
"No, Takashi." I deadpanned. I didn't even feel drunk anymore. Just tired. Despite this, I took another swig of my drink. I spun the chair around and hop off, whistling for Dogmeat to follow, to which he happily obliged. I took like three steps before ramming into a Diamond City guard, but he caught me by my shoulders and held me in place.  
"Sorry." I mumbled quietly, attempting to back away, but he held me there.  
"Hello, beautiful." He said smoothly. I almost gagged. Almost threw up on him. But the only vomit right now was word vomit. Words were coming out before I could stop them.  
"No... Need gun.." I mumbled to mostly myself. I basically needed a hired gun and I'd have taken anyone suitable at this point. This man was not suitable. He suddenly scoffed and let me go.  
"You looking for a hired gun?" He asked, sounding somewhat disgusted. I internally contemplated if this guy could read minds but quickly brushed it off and nodded vigorously. He rolled his eyes.  
"Tch. We don't let fellas like that in our city. Buffoons like that hole up in the ass end of Goodneighbor." The guard said before walking away. I smiled. Goodneighbor, huh? If the title reflects, it sounds like a place I wanna be. I could hire and have them come with me to find Nick Valentine... Not the safest plan I've ever come with... But what else have I got to lose? I've already lost everything I really care about. Well, that settles it. I leave for Goodneighbor tomorrow. I looked down at Dogmeat, who was just smiling at me. I chuckled and patted him head.  
"Come on, Dogmeat." I said quietly, and at that, we made our way to the Dugout. The night was quiet, no noise, no commotion, no nothing. Despite that, it was still a restless night. Hours and hours of tossing and turning and not much sleeping. I woke up exhausted, as usually. But I was still smiling because today was the day I would be able to get some help and go save Nick. But then my morning was ruined by one little thing.  
"What do you mean you're out of booze?!" I wailed, slamming my hands on the counter. The Russian bartender gave me an exasperated look and laughed nervously.  
"No, no, you see, you buy us out last night, yes? New shipment don't come until tonight, ah, capishe?" he said smoothly. I was mad, beyond mad. But not mad enough to start a whole riot about it. Fuck it. I'd just have to make one bottle of vodka last me to Goodneighbor. There had to be a bar in Goodneighbor, right? I sighed and calmly looked at the bartender.  
"That's alright. I'm on my way out, anyways. Dogmeat!" I barked, motioning for the dog to follow me out of the bar. I stopped at Piper's office to let her know I was hitting the road. And not with her.  
"But I'll be back. And I'll have Nick Valentine with me." I told her. She only smiled, somewhat deviously.  
"Ooooo... That'll make a good issue of the paper. "Woman out of time, Dylan Weiss, rescues Valentine!" She cooed before clapping her hands with excitement. It was dumb,but I could help but smile about how much a badass the Commonwealth made me out to be. But in reality you're afraid of your own shadow, you have no strategy, and you have the intelligence of a Bloatfly. Regardless, I still left with a smile on my face.... Until I got into the proper part of the city where I was attacked by super mutants and their hounds. I was outmatched 7 to 2. The dogs were a lot easier to take care of, but it's different when two suiciders start chasing you. I question their intelligence until I remember they used to be human once. Then again, so were ghouls and they were about as dumb as a bag of hammers. Despite the trouble and my lack of stealth, I was able to kill all the super mutants... Or so I thought. I stood admiring my work, neither Dogmeat or I hearing the super mutant hound coming up behind us and clamping down on the my leg. I let out a pained noise as I threw myself to the ground and used my free leg to kick the dog in the face. Dogmeat took the opportunity to tackle the larger creature off of me and begin to ravage it's throat. The hound let out a howl of pain as Dogmeat ripped out a chunk of its neck. I almost felt bad as it weakly writhed around for another moment before falling still, the blood on the ground already beginning to dry in the sun. Speaking of blood, I felt another bead of blood roll down my leg. I rolled up my pant leg to fully examine the damage. There was a deep bite in my calf, the skin around making a very quiet sizzle noise due to the radiation. Damn. I reached into my bag and pulled out a stimpak, then whimpering as I stabbed the needle directly into the wound. The pain turned into pleasure and I smiled, satisfied as the wound began to close up and heal. Once the wound was fully healed, I pulled myself to my feet and Dogmeat rushed over to sniff me over for any additional damage. I gave him a pat on the head.  
"I'm okay, boy. Are you?" I asked the dog. He barked in response. I smiled and we carries on. The rest of the walk was pretty quiet, a raider here, a mole rat there. Nothing Dogmeat and I couldn't handle on our own. Dusk was approaching and I was afraid we'd made a wrong turn or something. Just as I was about to turn back, neon signs lit up in the distance. I could barely make out the word "Goodneighbor" in red and blue lights. I smiled. I dropped the empty bottle of booze in my hand on the ground and Dogmeat and I broke into a sprint towards the door and I felt a rush go through me as I opened it and threw myself inside. I let out a sigh of relief as a feeling of safety washed over me. Both my eyebrows shot up once I looked up and looked around. There was a very interesting mixture of people here. And by that I mean I saw ghouls, robots, normal people, everything. Gunners, mercenaries, probably raiders. Scavengers. I was surprised. Even Dogmeat looked surprised. Despite all this, I wasn't afraid. As I looked forward a man approached me. He stared me down and I stared right back.  
"New face, huh? Well, you can't go walkin' around without insurance." He said in a deep raspy voice. This was not a voice I trusted. Not at all. I kept my cool, however.  
"Unless its"keep dumb assholes away from me" insurance, I'm not interested." I spat at him. If it wasn't obvious enough, he was the dumb asshole. He laughed.  
"Don't be like that. It's more like, give my everything you got. Or accidents start happening to ya... Big. Bloody. Accidents." He threatened. It didn't shake my attitude and I just gave him an "are you being serious right now?" look. As if on cue, a ghoul came out of the shadows.  
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out." He interrupts. His appearance is almost surprising. He almost looks... Absolutely fucking ridiculous. He looks like he popped right out of the 1600's or something. Minus the whole 'ghoul' part. He has a tricorn hat that makes him look like a pirate that joined the homo parade. He's probably the most interesting person I've seen so far. I internally mark him as part of the silly hats club, along with Preston and Piper. The man froze for a moment but then regained himself. I simply observed.  
"Someone steps in that gate for the first time, they're a guest. Lay off that extortion crap." the ghoul growled.  
"What do you care? She ain't one of us." the man retorted. And the ghoul smiled, but there was nothing innocent in that smile. I was almost afraid.  
"What? No love for your mayor, Finn? I said lay offa her." He said. The sentence started out almost sweet bur was almost aggressive by the end.  
"You're soft, Hancock. You keep letting strangers step all over us, and soon there'll be a new mayor." Finn said. And at that point, both myself and Finn knew he fucked up, because as soon as the words left his mouth his eyes betrayed him and he looked scared. My eyebrows shot up, almost eager to see what was gonna happen next. Dogmeat tilted his head in fascination. Hancock began to take slow steps towards Finn.  
"Come on, man, this is me we're talking about here. Let me tell ya somethin'..." He purred. I watched closely as he walked up to Finn, one hand reaching for his shoulder while the other reached behind his own back. And then I knew what was going to happen. Finn's nervous face twisted in surprise and pain as Hancock whipped out a switchblade and stabbed Finn one, two, three, four times in the chest. Finn sank to the ground, a long exhale heard as he lay there. Hancock 'tsked.'  
"Now why'd you have to go and say that, huh? Breakin' my heart over here." Hancock said casually." I stood, kind of speechless.  
"You alright, sister?" He asked. After a bewildered moment if silence, I answered him.  
"Yeah, I'm alright. Thanks." I said quietly. Who was this guy? He could probably be a pretty good partner in crime. Then again, by the sound of it, he was the mayor of this place, so I unfortunately had to scratch him off the list.  
"Good. But don't let this little incident taint your view of our little community. Goodneighbor is of the people, for the people. You feel me? Everyone's welcome." He explained. I resisted the urge to laugh at the word "taint." Regardless, I was skeptical. What was this, the constitution? It's the apocalypse, for fucks sake.  
"Of the people, for the people? Oh brother..." I mumbled, barely even realizing I was talking out loud until Hancock started laughing.  
"I can tell I'm gonna like you already. So long as you remember who's in charge. And at that, Hancock turned and walked away without another word. I watched as he walked up to a pretty redhead who was leaned up against the brick wall, gave her a light nudge and then they walked away together. I was almost puzzled. I looked at Dogmeat, who let out a yawn, which reminded me how tired I was. There had to be a hotel or something in here. There also had to be a bar. But the hotel was more important right now. I strolled casually into a shop where a ghoul stood behind the counter. An older woman, probably. Late forties? Mid fifties? Hell if I knew. She had soft eyes, despite their cloudy appearance. She looked like a friendly face, so I casually waltzed up to the counter and she ended up speaking before I did.  
"Well, I haven't seen you around before. It's nice to see a new face around here. And you're not even screaming yet. Can I get you anything?" She asked.  
"No, I was just looking f- wait, did you say screaming? Why would I be screaming?" I said, tilting my head a little, my hair tickling my shoulder. She let out a sigh.  
"Some people just don't know a friendly face. That or they haven't seen a ghoul before. Anyways, what did you need?" She asked again. Despite my time in the Commonwealth, the only other friendly ghouls I'd met were Hancock and one random ghoul out on the streets that I almost ended up shooting until they hollered and screamed that they weren't feral. I didn't understand the concept of ghouls. I didn't want to sound rude but I just had to ask.  
"What is a ghoul? I don't mean to sound like an ass, but I don't know." I asked. She scoffed.  
"You ain't from around here, are ya? Well, a ghoul is a person. Just someone that's been exposed to a bit too much radiation. Their skin burns away and their eyes go dark and we sound like, well, this. And we age veeeery slowly. Hell, I look pretty good for being over 250, don't I?" She said with a laugh. I laughed along with her.  
"Now, you needed something else, right?" She asked. I nodded.  
"Oh, yeah! I'm looking for a hotel." I said simply. She raised an eyebrow and spoke kind of bluntly.  
"Hotel Rexford. Other side of town. Past the Third Rail, the bar. Next to the Memory Den. Shouldn't be hard to find." She said. That was all I needed.  
"Thanks, uh..."  
"Call me Daisy."  
"Right. Thanks, Daisy.. Come on, Dogmeat!" And at that, Dogmeat and I took off for the other side of town. And sure enough, we found Hotel Rexford with ease, got a room, which was on the top floor. Once we were in, I threw myself on the bed and sighed. Dogmeat sat at the foot of the bed and stared. I scooted over as much as I could and patted the open spot beside me.  
"Come on, boy." I said quietly and he hopped on, quickly curling up into a ball next to me. I scratched his head lightly. I felt sleep coming and I let it take me, falling into a rough, dreamless sleep. I could use a drink... First stop tomorrow, the bar.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I probably picked a horrible time to start writing because, in a quite literal sense, exams start in 11 days. Go me! -_-  
> Regardless, I took my time with this, and tried to take the advice I got. And failed because it saved weird in my document and I'm too lazy to fix it. I'll remember next time. (thanks btw)  
> Also I had to remember most of the dialogue on my own, so it's probably wrong.  
> ALSO I had italics in there but they didn't save hahahahahabaahha. So that's gonna be weird. Go dammit.  
> ALSO my tab key is broken.yaaaay.  
> But yeah, updates are probably gonna be somewhat slow but I'm trying. At least until summer comes around. Thanks for reading!


	3. Goodneighbor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Getting to meet the man we've been looking for.

I woke up with a start, In a cold sweat. My jump woke up Dogmeat and he reached his head up to sniff me before putting head back down. I sighed. That fucking dream again. Why can't I stop dreaming about it? Reliving his death over and over.... I shuddered. 

I had been having the same dream, if any dream at all, since I woke up. Just of Nate dying over and over. And the man that did it giving me the same sinister smile as he freezes me back up. I sighed, swinging my legs over the side of the bed and standing up, causing Dogmeat to pick his head up and tilt his head out of curiosity. I smiled at his and then lifted up my pip-boy to check the time. It was 10:57 in the morning. Not too early to buy whatever their bar might be selling. I shrugged. I turned to the mirror and looked myself over.

I was a mess.

I licked my thumb and wiped a smudge of dirt off my cheek. God, I need a tan... I'm so white... I've never been able to tan though. I'm either whiter than an albino Deathclaw or I'm red. There's no in-between. And I prefer white. I raked a finger through my dirty hair. Other than my dark, almost black roots that were still growing in, my hair was bleached, almost white. I bleached it not too long before the bombs fell. My hair was short, not even touching my shoulders, most of the time. I flicked the hair out of my face. I reached in my bag and pulled out, yes, a stick of liquid eyeliner that I made myself. After applying enough that was noticeable, but not too much to look ridiculous. I smiled at my reflection. I was happy with myself right now. Time to buy all the liquor my pockets can carry.   
"Come on, boy." I called, and he instantly got excited, jumping off the bed. His tail was wagging so hard, his whole rear end was swaying along. I patted him on the head before swinging open my door and making my way out. I tossed my key on the front desk without a word. I pushed the door open and made my way to The Third Rail, the neighborhood watch staring me down as I went. There probably weren't new faces very often, at least ones that weren't ghoul or super mutant. Regardless, I made my way to the Third Rail without trouble and stepped in. I was met with a very snazzy looking ghoul. He eyed me for a second before speaking.

"Hancock says newcomers are welcome. Go ahead." the ghoul said. I gave him a friendly smile and a nod before slowly walking down the stairs. And honestly? It was exactly what I was expecting... Sorta. I wasn't expecting the life entertainment. Or the Mr. Handy in the bowler hat working the bar. I strolled up to the counter and placed my hands on it. The robot, who was washing a cup, raised it's sensors to look at me.  
"Oi. New face, eh? Welcome the Third Rail. What'll it be? If you ain't buyin' beer, you ain't buyin'." He said dully in a deep, English voice.   
"Yeah, yeah, I'll order in a sec, but tell me about the place." I ordered. The robot grumbled.   
"It's a bar, whaddaya want? Singer is Magnolia, I go by Whitechapel Charlie, and sell drinks of all kinds, MacCready's usually in the back. Now order or go somewhere, I ain't no Info bot." the bot said. How bitter. I sighed, basically ordering everything he had. I stepped away from the counter, popping the top off of a bottle of vodka and taking a swig. I'd really like to see someone try to out drink me. I'm probably the biggest alcoholic in the Commonwealth. But how else am I supposed to cope? I wanted to hear about this Magnolia girl and the MacCready guy. But Magnolia was preforming, so I had no choice but to go find MacCready instead. I wondered what he did. I strolled down the hallway and peeked around the doorway. There were three men in there, two of them very angry looking and buff, and the other one lanky and cocky looking. The cocky looking one was sat down on a chair in front of the two others, sipping what looked like whiskey out of a plastic cup. He had on a weird looking hat and a dirty, ripped up duster. I made a mental note to automatically add him to the silly hats club. I leaned against the door frame and decided to be nosey, pushing up my glasses as I listened to their conversation. Dogmeat sat beside me and wagged his tail.  
"Can't say I'm surprised to find you in a dump like this, MacCready." One of the guys said. I had to disagree with the "dump" part. It was a pretty nice room. I could only assume the one sitting in the chair was MacCready.   
"I was wondering how long it would take your bloodhounds to track me down, Winlock." MacCready sneered, taking another sip of his drink. So the one who spoke was Winlock. Dully noted.   
"It's been almost three months..." MacCready continued.  
"Don't tell me you're getting rusty.... Should we take this outside?" He said in a dark voice that even made me shiver. Winlock put his hands up in surrender.  
"It ain't like that. We're just here to deliver a message." He assured. MacCready raised an eyebrow, his eyes darting in my direction just for a second before focusing back on Winlock and his friend. MacCready snorted, taking one more sip of his drink before practically slamming it down on the table, then standing up, taking a step towards the two guys, causing them both to take a step back.  
"In case you haven't noticed, I left the Gunners for good." MacCready pointed out. Winlock nodded.   
"Yeah, I noticed." Winlock said back. MacCready is an ex-gunner? Oh brother...  
"But you're taking jobs in the Commonwealth. That ain't gonna work for us." Winlock pointed out. I raised an eyebrow. Jobs doing what? Was he a fucking assassin or something? The sniper that clung to his back gave me that idea.   
"I don't take orders from you. Not anymore." MacCready spat.  
"So why don't you take your girlfriend and get outta here while you still can?" He suggested casually, smirking at the two guys. That comment caused me to snort before I had the chance to slap a hand over my mouth, causing MacCready to glance in my direction again. The other two were appalled.   
"W-What?!" The other man babbled.  
"Winlock! Don't tell me we gotta listen to this shit.." He growled. Winlock put a hand up to shut his 'girlfriend' up.  
"Listen up, MacCready. The only reason we haven't filled your body with bullets is because we don't want a war with Goodneighbor. See, we respect other people's boundaries. Something you never learned." Winlock said. MacCready smiled, but the nervousness was clear in his eyes.  
"Glad to have disappointed you." He sneered at them. Winlock sighed, clearly annoyed.   
"Listen, you can play tough guy all you want but if we find out you're still operating under Gunner territory all bets are off. Got it?" Winlock threatened. MacCready kept a blank expression.   
"You finished?" He said bluntly. Winlock smiled devilishly.  
"Yeah, we're finished. Come on, Barnes." He said. And with that, Winlock and Barnes turned towards me to exit, bumping my shoulder as they walked by and the three of us exchanged dirty looks. I already wanted to fucking jap slap these guys. Dogmeat let out a low growl as they walked by and I put a hand out to calm him. It was probably the most tense exchange I'd had in a month without it resulting immediately in gunfire. I sighed, turning back to MacCready, who was sat in his chair again. Dogmeat took the chance to trot over and smell him all over. MacCready cringed, but a ghost of a smile was there. Dogmeat then proceeded to sit down next to him and lay his head on MacCready's thigh. He gave the dog's head an awkward pat.  
"Nice friends." I muttered. MacCready then gave me a look, then sighed. He gently pushed Dogmeat's snout off his lap and stood up.  
"Look, lady. If you're preachin' about the Atom or looking for a friend, you got the wrong guy." He began. I scoffed but said nothing. Did I look like a fucking clergy?   
"Buuut... If you're looking for a hired gun, maaaaybe we can talk." He said smoothly. I raised an eyebrow. He had a voice that I wanted to trust but something about him just screamed "fuck no." I sighed.   
"Maybe. Tell about the loonies first." I said. MacCready snorted.  
"Winlock and Barnes? Just two morons looking to climb the ladder of success by stepping on everyone else on the way up." He explained vaguely. Didn't tell me much, but it was still fair enough.   
"Shouldn't be surprised though. That's just how it goes when you run with the Gunners." He said. I didn't even properly know what the Gunners were.  
"Who are the Gunners?" I asked. MacCready's eyesbrows shot up.  
"You're not from here, are you? They're the biggest gang in the Commonwealth. Got a rep for being crazy. Y'know, so tightly wound that you'd think they're a cult or something. I stuck with 'em for a while because the caps were good but I never fit in, so I made a clean break and started to fly solo." He admitted. Wow. Usually you don't tell this stuff to plausible customers.  
"What about you?" He asked suspiciously, looking me up and down quickly.   
"How do I know I wont end up with a bullet in my back?" He asked. Because you're probably my last hope right now. But I can't say that.  
"You don't. That's part of the risk, right?" I said, smiling innocently and tilting my head. He opened his mouth to argue but quickly shut it and let out a deep breath.  
"Can't argue with that." He mumbled.   
"Tell you what, I'll make you a deal. 250 caps, up front. And there's no room for bargaining." He said bluntly. Sounds like a challenge.   
"Everything's negotiable. Will you take 200?" I asked. He stared at the ground for a moment.   
"You drive a hard bargain, buuuut you just bought yourself an extra gun." He said. And with that, I reached in my bag, pulling out the 200 caps and sitting them in his waiting hand. And then he put them in his bag. He then turned to me and gave me a toothy smile. Which I regretting looking at, because a lot of his teeth were rotten. And that was kinda gross. The intact teeth were relatively clean though, which led me to believe he only had shit hygiene as a child, but has improved.   
"Alright, boss. Lets get this show on the road." He said. I smiled back, nodding. Then I stuck out my hand, and he just stared at it.  
"I didn't really introduce myself, and if you're gonna kill stuff with me, we should at least know a little bit, yeah? Dylan Weiss, Commonwealth minutemen." I said. He raised his eyebrows and hesitantly shook my hand.  
"Robert Joseph MacCready." He said hesitantly. Nice name.  
"Commonwealth, uh, mercenary." He said lamely. I nodded in approval.   
"Nice to properly meet ya. I'm gonna apologize now for all the trouble I'm gonna get us into." I said with a smile. He looked kind of surprised but smiled back.  
"Let's get this show on the road!" I announced, taking a swig of my vodka and offering the bottle to MacCready, which he gladly took. I was gonna let him have the rest and just buy another bottle from Charlie. And with that, my partner and I walked into the bar and went back to the counter. Charlie groaned.   
"You again? And... MacCready, eh?" Charlie said suggestively. I snorted.   
"Not like that. Just needed some help with some stuff and he seemed good for the job. Bottle o' whiskey, will ya?" I said firmly. Not a chance in the world I'd go with the guy that way. He used to be Gunner. And besides that, all I knew was his name. Charlie reached behind the counter and got the bottle, and we exchanged, the whiskey for some caps. I still didn't understand why that was the new currency. But I wasn't stubborn enough to question it. Caps were easier to find than pre-war money. I turned to walk away but then Charlie spoke.  
"Now that you're all liquored up... You up for some work? I need a dirty girl to do some dirty, dirty work." He purred. I glanced at MacCready, raising an eyebrow, and he returned the same look. Eh, why not.  
"What kind of work?" I asked, propping my elbows on the counter. Charlie chuckled.   
"Client of mine needs some guys in the warehouse... Cleared out. Couple o' dumb blokes who need to take dirt nap. Interested?" He asked. Yes, very, actually. I was little tired being a goody-two shoes all the time. But I needed to know who I was doing it for.   
"I'm not going anything unless I know who this client is." I said firmly. Charlie laughed. I didn't know why he was getting a kick outta this.  
"Alright, alright. Client is Mayor Hancock. He don't need to be involved in such... Political struggles. So, you want the job or not?" Charlie asked, getting a little impatient.  
"Am I getting paid for this job?" I asked. MacCready nodded. MacCready kind of reminded me of Mr. Krabs from the classic SpongeBob. My mom told me that she watched it when she was a toddler in like the year 2017. She said Mr. Krabs was a money hungry guy that would basically sell his own leg to get some money.  
"200. After the job is done." He said. I glanced at MacCready, who looked unsatisfied.   
"You can do better than that." I purred. Charlie grumbled.  
"300, take it or leave it." He said bluntly. That's fair enough. I nodded.  
"Deal, come on MacCready." I said, motioning for him follow me. He let out a quick sigh and followed me out of the bar.  
"Stay outta trouble, MacCready." The ghoul in the suit said. MacCready chuckled.  
"I am trouble. No promises, Ham." He retorted. Ham? What kind of name is Ham? I brushed it off and we walked out of the Third Rail. I turned towards MacCready.  
"So, where are these warehouses? There's three, right?" I asked. He pointed a finger behind me.  
"Well, for starters, there's a door to one right behind you. They're all locked up kinda tight, though." He said. I raised an eyebrow.  
"Sounds like a challenge.." I said deviously, pulling out a bobby pin and a screwdriver and working on the lock. MacCready yawned.  
"There's no point, they're locked tight, you may as well just sh-"   
"Got it." I interrupted. His mouth fell open and his surprised expression turned to one of admiration.  
"Ah.. Nice!" He complimented. I smiled.  
"Thanks! Okay, we're gonna go in quiet but raise a lot of hell. You ready?" I said quietly.  
"Ready when you are, boss." He said, giving me a wicked smile. A small bark startled me and I turned to look at Dogmeat, who was sat beside me. I sighed and crouched to the dog's level.  
. "I need you to go home, boy. Okay? Can you go to Sanctuary, buddy?" I asked the dog. He barked in response and broke into a run towards the exit. Okay. Time to raise hell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry if updates slow a loooot, but not only do I have other things that I'm working on, but it's also exam season. I really need to focus on exams, but I'm trying to write as well. Thanks for reading.


	4. A/N

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That's it.

A/N: Sorry for the lack of any updates on, well anything. I'm suffering from a horrible case of writers block. And exams are also destroying my soul. But fear not! I shall retur n when exams are over.... In two weeks... Hopefully I'll be back before then. And, if anyone was wondering, the newest manga chapter of Fairy Tail has crushed me. Canon and dead in the same chapter. It hurts my very existence. Sorry about the rambling and sorry for no update. I'll be back, my babies!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks man.


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